Slobodan Milosevic

Slobodan Milosevic (20 August 1941-11 March 2006) was President of Serbia from 8 May 1989 to 23 July 1997 (succeeding Petar Gracanin and preceding Milan Milutinovic) and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 23 July 1997 to 7 October 2000 (succeeding Zoran Lilic and preceding Vojislav Kostunica). Milosevic, who led the Socialist Party of Serbia ever since its 1990 foundation, was responsible for the breakup of Yugoslavia due to his encouragement of Serb nationalism, which, in turn, led to the rise of nationalism among the ethnic minorities and the disintegration of the communist state.

Biography
Slobodan Milosevic was born in Pozarevac, Serbia in 20 August 1941, the son of a father who was a renowned Orthodox Christian theologian and a mother who worked as a teacher; both of his parents committed suicide (his father in 1962, his mother ten years later), as did his maternal uncle, a Major-General in the Yugoslav People's Army. While attending the University of Belgrade's Law School, Milosevic became head of the ideology committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia's student branch and befriended Ivan Stambolic. Stambolic sponsored Milosevic's rise in society, and Milosevic came to head one of Yugoslavia's largest banks in 1978.

Rise in politics
In 1984, he came to head Belgrade's city committee, and he served as President of the League of Communists of Serbia from 1986 to 1989. Starting in 1987, he endorsed a Serbian nationalist agenda. On 20 April 1987, Stambolic sent Milosevic to calm tensions between the Albanian communist officials and Serbian nationalists in Kosovo, but Milosevic decided to meet with the Serbian nationalists on 24 April at 5:00 PM after Miroslav Solevic demanded a dialogue instead of a monologue. Milosevic was convinced that the Albanians were burning down monasteries and attacking the Serbs, and he pushed for Serbian nationalism. In 1988, Slovenia and Serbia began to drift apart after Slovenia accused Serbia of Stalinism and Serbia accused Slovenia of treason. In the late 1980s, he allowed the mobilization of Serb nationalist organizations to go unhindered by actions from the Serbian government, and he also supported the creation of an autonomous province for Croatian Serbs, a move strongly opposed by the Croatian communists. Milosevic's actions led to the rise of ethnic nationalism across Yugoslavia.

Presidency
In 1989, Milosevic became President of Serbia, and he made several major reforms to the constitution, reducing the powers of the autonomous provinces. In 1990, he transformed Serbia from a Titoist one-party system to a multi-party system and attempted to reform the 1974 constitution. However, his revocation of Kosovo's autonomy in 1989 led to an upsurge in nationalism, and his Serbocentric policies led to Croatia, Slovenia, and Macedonia declaring independence in 1991 and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. The Serbs attempted to fight against Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia, but these wars degenerated into inter-ethnic conflicts noted for their "ethnic cleansing". In 1995, the Serbs committed the infamous Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia, killing over 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks. In 1999, Kosovo declared independence and rebelled against Serbia, and Milosevic oversaw more ethnic cleansing there. Both the war in Bosnia and the war in Kosovo led to NATO intervening, bombing Yugoslavia.

Fall from power
In 1999, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged Milosevic with war crimes, and he was forced to resign the presidency in 2000 after protests broke out in reaction to his fradulent re-election. On 31 March 2001, he was arrested on suspicion of corruption, abuse of power, and embezzlement. Milosevic conducted his own defense in front of the ICTY and denounced the tribunal, and his trial lasted for five years. In 2006, he died in his prison cell in The Hague from a heart attack, and his trial ended with no verdict.